


Hey Mr. Moneybags

by Lyra_Sanzennine



Series: Shevirat ha-Kelim [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: BDSM, F/M, Married Life, Slice of Life, evil is tempting, well implied anyway. don't get too excited.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 15:13:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17266499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyra_Sanzennine/pseuds/Lyra_Sanzennine
Summary: Life is long when it’s lived well. Fifteen years after meteorfall, eleven little words make Sephiroth realize that if he wanted to take over the world again, he would almost certainly succeed. Now he’s got some choices to make.





	Hey Mr. Moneybags

**Author's Note:**

> Happy new year!

Sephiroth leaned back in his mesh-body Aeron office chair and allowed himself a rare, self-satisfied smile. Things were finally looking up for Synteza Corp. It was a pity he hadn’t fired those unreliable manufacturing suppliers sooner. Their replacements had gone above and beyond to build relationships with his senior managers and understand the pulse and vision of his company. Their supply chain was now as tight as he could hope for, and the firm was now generating enough profit to expand their clean energy network into the rural regions of the Western Continent. In a couple of years, he should be able to turn his attention to Wutai. It was long overdue, in Sephiroth’s private opinion. He still had countless debts to repay that nation.

Things at home were even better than the state of his work. It was hard to believe sometimes how blessed his life had become. The family had settled into a new state of calm after the chaos of their recent kitchen renovation. Earlier in the week Elmyra had shared her top secret recipe for pork chops with mushroom sauce. Apparently the magic was all in the bourbon and he had _so_ enjoyed the expression on Aeris’s face when she realized her own mother had divulged a secret to him that she wasn’t yet privy to.

Sephiroth smirked at the memory of how he’d waved the little slip of paper with his district manager’s PHS number in front of Elmyra’s face. “Oh Jorson’s interested, all right,” he’d said to his mother-in-law, “But I demand payment in the form of something that will drive Aeris crazy.”

He didn’t know if they’d actually started seeing each other, but judging by Elmyra’s downright bubbly mood these days, he could make an educated guess.

Tiqi on the other hand, he knew all about. Too much, maybe. She delighted in telling him about how Ezra had given her a box of chocolates and Tarek had bribed Mimi with a week of free lunches to switch desks so that he could sit next to her in history class. Sephiroth had _felt_ Tiqi’s calculating gaze against the top of his forehead as she watched and waited for his response. It was all he could do to keep his face impassive as he chanted silently to himself, _she’s a great student and she’s a black belt, she’s a great student and she’s a black belt._ He’d looked up from his dinner and plate and just barely managed to deadpan, “Try not to break too many hearts, dear.”

Then there was Machar. The quiet, solemn boy who was still so hard to read. Who preferred books to friends and an easel and brush to conversation. After months of researching their options, they’d transferred him to a private art school in the city, and he seemed to be settling in nicely. His paintings had taken on a lighter tone of late, the abstract lines and swirls no longer dominated by harsh blacks and reds and glowing toxic greens. The baby chocobo probably helped. The one Machar had dubbed Chickypoo, much to Sephiroth’s chagrin. Machar visited her every weekend at Bill’s ranch to brush her yellow feathers and lovingly coo human nonsense into her ear.

Someday all too soon, Sephiroth was sure, Chickypoo would carry his son all over the continent. Aeris was far more at ease with the idea, reminding him periodically that they’d been in more dangerous situations throughout their lives, and that the children needed the freedom to be themselves.

“Remember that time you made me cut up those mushrooms with hundreds of _teeth_?” she’d said to him one night, recalling their time together in the rainforests of the southern isle, searching for the ancient temple. “If I could survive _that_ , Machar can survive too.”  

“That was entirely different. You were with me.” He’d ignored Aeris’s snort, and continued, “Back then I could have taken an entire nest of Nibel dragons with one hand tied behind my back.”

“Cocky bastard,” she’d said, playfully slapping him across the chest. “The monsters have gotten pretty tame since we stopped using mako. Besides, he’s your son. He’ll be fine. We’ll give him some mastered materia and my old staff if he wants it.” And then she’d threaded her fingers into his hair and kissed him deeply and he’d forgotten whatever it was that they had been talking about and didn’t remember again until morning.

He sighed in contentment. He was a lucky man.

_Bzzzz. Bzzzz._

The sound of buzzing interrupted his thoughts and he opened his eyes to see his PHS flashing on his desk. He picked it up and entered the password with a few swipes of his thumb.

It was a message from Scarlet. Eleven little words that threatened to unravel him.

_Hey mr moneybags care to invest in some stealth drone R &D?_

Sephiroth felt his breath hitch and his pulse quicken. Drone tech. _Scarlet’s_ drone tech. Modern weapons of war that could do damage on a scale unimaginable a decade ago. In the hands of a global energy leader…it could mean military supremacy. It could mean that …he could do it all over again.

Desire hit him like a gravity well. He wasn’t at all prepared for the pure sensation of _longing_ that flooded him upon reading those words. Electricity tingled throughout his body, flowing from his chest out to his limbs. His throat grew tight as he suddenly remembered what it felt like to have grown men trembling before him. The weight of Masamune in his hand and the calm, cold knowledge that he had an army at his back, ready to die at his word.

Those had been the days. Power for which there was no substitute. A time when a girl could be stolen off the streets and locked up in Midgar Tower to await his pleasure. A time when he was obeyed without question, negotiation not required.

He could have it all again. He knew it. The world had changed in the last fifteen years, but not so much that an energy monopoly combined with well-timed propaganda and black ops drone strikes wouldn’t hand him another dictatorship. Even though he was middle-aged now and not a super SOLDIER at the height of his abilities…that could be compensated with careful leadership and management – skills he had honed in the last decade.

 _You know where to find me,_ she’d said.

 _When you’re ready for another round of world domination,_ she’d said.

And something dark and hungry inside him was ready. So ready. He’d thought that part of him long dead, but he could almost taste the bittersweet flavor of power on his lips.

He tore his glasses from his face and tossed them onto the mahogany desk.

_Damn you, Scarlet._

It was a good thing they weren’t sexually compatible, he mused. Gaia only knew what terrors they would have inflicted upon the world, each enabling the other to greater extremes, if they had any desire to please one another.

He leaned over his desk, braced on his elbows with his middle fingers massaging the bridge of his nose. He needed to get a grip. Think of the kids, he told himself. What would they think of their father turning into a warlord? Tiqi…would probably take up arms against him. Would Machar do the same?

Zack definitely would, and that was something. He treasured his friendship with Zack and was still grateful that the man had eventually found it in his heart to forgive him.

Sephiroth wondered if the best course of action was to confess his temptation to his friend. Zack was one of the few SOLDIERs left on the Planet, and the only former First Class. After twenty years without a mako shower, he wasn’t that much stronger than an average fighter and the Buster Sword now hung over his fireplace, never to be wielded again. But if anyone was going to have the fortitude to stop Sephiroth, it would be Zack.

Well, he thought with a small smile, that probably wasn’t true. Aeris would probably still obliterate him with Ultima if it came down to it. For the sake of his sanity and his chosen moral alignment, he should probably confess to her as well.

He leaned back against his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. He breathed deeply and willed his body to sink into relaxation, following one pleasant memory to the next until the blood thirst began to fade.  He thought about the teenagers inhaling dumplings at the dinner table as Elmyra smiled at them dotingly. He remembered the feeling of Aeris running her foot against the length of his calf beneath the table. The hard press of metal over the fabric of his trousers that told him she was wearing the Minerva Band on her ankle, hidden beneath her jeans. What a delight it had been to discover later that night that her pink nail polish matched her lingerie. Her lace panties had been well and truly soaked by the time he’d finally let her come. He smiled at the memory of how she’d mumbled nonsense as her eyes drifted closed, something that probably amounted to _thank you_.

Sephiroth sighed and looked down at the bulge in his pants. Perhaps ruminating so long on such… distracting activities hadn’t been the wisest course of action. The thought of getting back to work now was nearly unbearable.

Well, there were perks to being the head of his own company. And there was no sense in spending the rest of the day attempting to be productive. If anything, that would just be a waste of everyone else’s time.

He brought up his calendar on the computer screen and dialed his secretary’s extension after a quick glance through his itinerary.

“Hey boss,” the young man’s voice said through the receiver.

“Please cancel the rest of my meetings this afternoon, Shio,” Sephiroth said. “Something’s come up at home and I’ll be leaving shortly.”

“No problem. Hope everything’s okay.”

“Don’t worry,” he responded with a small smile. “Everything’s fine.”

He disconnected the line with the click of a button and picked up his PHS to dial Elmyra.

After two rings, she greeted him with a, “Hi Sephiroth.”

“Elmyra, would you mind if the children came over for dinner tonight?” he asked. “I’d like to make a nice meal and have a quiet evening with Aeris.”

He could practically hear his mother-in-law grin. She loved being reminded that this was one of the ways in which he took care of her daughter. Cooking and packing lunches for Aeris during her busy internship years had been a major step in his and Elmyra’s reconciliation.

“I’d love to have them over!” Elmyra exclaimed. “Just tell them to come here after school.”

He thanked her, hung up, and texted the kids, _Your parents will be wining and dining tonight. Please proceed to your grandmother’s house after school._

Tiqi texted him back a puking emoji; Machar texted back an eyeroll.

Sephiroth smiled to himself and let his thumb linger over the screen of his PHS for a long moment. Then he sent one last message to Scarlet before leaving the office.

_If you mean automated monitoring maintenance and repair drones, let’s talk. Stealth not required._

Her reply was immediate.

 _You were a lot more fun twenty years ago old man_.

 

.               .               .

He stopped by the market on the way home and put away the groceries before changing into loose clothes and heading to the backyard with his katana. The familiar dance of the decades-old kata, the weight of steel in his hands, the rush of air against his skin - they still served to center him.

He thought about what he would say to Aeris when she got home. How he would voice the questions that he needed to ask. He knew the temptation would continue to grow until it became a real danger. There was still so much that he _craved_. To know that he could have it all, if he chose to seize the opportunity…there was real risk in that. It wasn’t enough to place faith in his self-control. Only a fool would be so proud.

Luckily, he wasn’t alone. Would never be alone again. And he had a very good idea of what it would take to keep his desires in check. The itch could be safely scratched. He could be distracted, kept satisfied of his deep need for domination.

And if she rejected his proposal…well, come what may, they would find a way to move forward together.

She arrived just as he was starting to plate up the grilled swordfish topped with charred leek and slices of peeled blood orange. Her eyes widened at the sight of him in the kitchen.

“That smells amazing,” she said, breathing deeply. “What’s the occasion?”

“Go slip into something comfortable,” he replied. “I’ll tell you over dinner.”

By the time she came back wearing a gauzy little white sundress, he’d set the dining room table, lit the candles, turned off the lights, and started pouring two glasses of white wine.

He glanced over at her in the doorway and admired how the low cut dress showed off her soft breasts and the strong lines of her calves. She carried herself with the air of a woman who knew exactly what she was worth. Her body was relaxed – there was nothing to hide. Not a hint of youthful self-consciousness in sight.

And she was barefoot, the Minerva Band around her ankle in clear view. The sight of the black metal and its shimmering orbs made him suck in his breath. Jewelry and armor. Slavery and freedom.

Submission and power.

She knew what she was about. And so did he. This woman could annihilate him, and he loved that about her.

He pushed Aeris’s chair in behind her as she sat down before taking his own seat at the table. She was looking at him with suspicion in her eyes while smiling at the beautiful meal he’d prepared for them.

He raised his glass to her. “Cheers,” he said.

They clinked their glasses and took their first sips. Then Aeris cut into her swordfish steak and finally asked him, “Alright, what’s going on here, Seph?”

He studied the amber liquid as it swirled around the inside of his glass. His was gripping the stem gently, already imagining his fingers curled around the column of his wife’s throat, the steady beat of her pulse drumming against his skin.

He took another sip of wine, swallowed hard to suppress his nerves, and finally asked, “Have you ever heard of Total Power Exchange?”

**Author's Note:**

> My intention is to write 3 more one-shots for this AU:  
> "International women's day" - where Aeris pegs seph, thank you deadpool  
> A TPE fic which will aim to scratch all our consensual non-consent BDSM cravings for these two  
> "How I met your mother" - because someone once told me they couldn't imagine how that conversation could possibly go down with the kids.
> 
> Interested?


End file.
